When Iran and the six world powers announced July 14 they had reached a nuclear agreement, those advocating for better relations between the United States and Iran were sure that further steps were imminent — steps that might even have paved the way in the near future for an American ambassador in Iran.

With news that the “Death to America” graffiti had been removed from the walls of the former US Embassy in Tehran, the “new era” of relations was the topic of discussion among both supporters and opponents of the nuclear deal, both inside and outside Iran. It was as if the world was changing without any resistance. Yet, as it has turned out, that possibility was too good to be true.

Before the deal and amid its announcement in Vienna, the man who spoke the least was Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He drew his red lines ahead of the negotiations and entered a silent mode until everything was over. The cleric even kept his distance after the deal. Indeed, though he gave several speeches in the ensuing months, he never offered a clear stance on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) until Oct. 21, when he endorsed the deal, cautiously saying that its implementation should be "tightly controlled and monitored" because of its "ambiguities." He said a lack of tight control "could bring significant damage for the present and the future of the country."

Ayatollah Khamenei’s main concern was not the deal itself, but its implications for the country, specifically regarding relations with the United States — the country regarded by Tehran hard-liners as the main enemy of the Islamic Revolution and its values, the “Great Satan” that bears responsibility for all the evil in the world.